[20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. Katherine Dunham's long and remarkable life spanned the fields of anthropology, dance, theater, and inner city social work.As an anthropologist, Dunham studied and lived among the peoples of Haiti and other Caribbean islands; as a dancer and choreographer she combined "primitive" Caribbean dances with . However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Katherine returnedto to the usa in 1931 miss Dunham met one of. She returned to the United States in 1936 informed by new methods of movement and expression, which she incorporated into techniques that transformed the world of dance. As Julia Foulkes pointed out, "Dunham's path to success lay in making high art in the United States from African and Caribbean sources, capitalizing on a heritage of dance within the African Diaspora, and raising perceptions of African American capabilities."[65]. [9] In high school she joined the Terpsichorean Club and began to learn a kind of modern dance based on the ideas of Europeans [mile Jaques-Dalcroze] and [Rudolf von Laban]. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." forming a powerful personal. During her studies, Dunham attended a lecture on anthropology, where she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. She . Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909. [8], Despite her choosing dance, Dunham often voiced recognition of her debt to the discipline: "without [anthropology] I don't know what I would have done.In anthropology, I learned how to feel about myself in relation to other people. The Katherine Dunham Fund buys and adapts for use as a museum an English Regency-style townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue at Tenth Street in East Saint Louis. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Died On : May 21, 2006. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. In the mid-1950s, Dunham and her company appeared in three films: Mambo (1954), made in Italy; Die Grosse Starparade (1954), made in Germany; and Msica en la Noche (1955), made in Mexico City. In particular, Dunham is a model for the artist as activist. This is where, in the late 1960s, global dance legend Katherine Dunham put down roots and taught the arts of the African diaspora to local children and teenagers. Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French-Canadian mother who died when she was young. Beautiful, Justice, Black. Video. Unlike other modern dance creators who eschewed classical ballet, Dunham embraced it as a foundation for her technique. Dunham saved the day by arranging for the company to be paid to appear in a German television special, Karibische Rhythmen, after which they returned to the United States. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." What are some fun facts about Katherine Dunham? You dance because you have to. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. A carriage house on the grounds is to . [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology. 1. In 1921, a short story she wrote when she was 12 years old, called "Come Back to Arizona", was published in volume 2 of The Brownies' Book. [1] The Dunham Technique is still taught today. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology. Birth Country: United States. Long, Richard A, and Joe Nash. Dun ham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. Birth Year: 1956. Katherine Dunham, pseudonym Kaye Dunn, (born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, U.S.died May 21, 2006, New York, New York), American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer in the field of dance anthropology. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. [15] He showed her the connection between dance and social life giving her the momentum to explore a new area of anthropology, which she later termed "Dance Anthropology". [3] She created many all-black dance groups. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. At the time, the South Side of Chicago was experiencing the effects of the Great Migration were Black southerners attempted to escape the Jim Crow South and poverty. In 1950, while visiting Brazil, Dunham and her group were refused rooms at a first-class hotel in So Paulo, the Hotel Esplanada, frequented by many American businessmen. movement and expression. Dunham is a ventriloquist comedian and uses seven different puppets in his act, known by his fans as the "suitcase posse." His first Comedy Central Presents special premiered in 2003. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. The prince was then married to actress Rita Hayworth, and Dunham was now legally married to John Pratt; a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas had taken place earlier in the year. After the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Dunham encouraged gang members in the ghetto to come to the center to use drumming and dance to vent their frustrations. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.[42][43][44][45][46][47]. [35] In a different interview, Dunham describes her technique "as a way of life,[36]" a sentiment that seems to be shared by many of her admiring students. She expressed a hope that time and the "war for tolerance and democracy" (this was during World War II) would bring a change. Also Known For : . [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. As one of her biographers, Joyce Aschenbrenner, wrote: "Today, it is safe to say, there is no American black dancer who has not been influenced by the Dunham Technique, unless he or she works entirely within a classical genre",[2] and the Dunham Technique is still taught to anyone who studies modern dance. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. [15], In 1935, Dunham was awarded travel fellowships from the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim foundations to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, and Trinidad studying the dance forms of the Caribbean. On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. Dancer. [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. Dunham had been invited to stage a new number for the popular, long-running musical revue Pins and Needles 1940, produced by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. [51] The couple had officially adopted their foster daughter, a 14-month-old girl they had found as an infant in a Roman Catholic convent nursery in Fresnes, France. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. According to the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Dunham never thought she'd have a career in dance, although she did study with ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page, among others. (Below are 10 Katherine Dunham quotes on positivity. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Born: June 22, 1909. . By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora offers new insight about how this remarkable woman built political solidarity through the arts. Video. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. Born in 1909 #28. In 1937 she traveled with them to New York to take part in A Negro Dance Evening, organized by Edna Guy at the 92nd Street YMHA. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. Died: May 21, 2006. Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to scout for talented African musicians and dancers. Other Interesting Katherine Dunham Facts And Trivia 'Come Back To Arizona', a short story Katherine Dunham penned when she was 12 years old, was published in 1921 in volume two of 'The Brownies' Book'. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. He had been a promising philosophy professor at Howard University and a protg of Alfred North Whitehead. In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . Dunham and her company appeared in the Hollywood movie Casbah (1948) with Tony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, and Peter Lorre, and in the Italian film Botta e Risposta, produced by Dino de Laurentiis. Her mission was to help train the Senegalese National Ballet and to assist President Leopold Senghor with arrangements for the First Pan-African World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar (196566). Her mother, Fanny June Dunham, who, according to Dunham's memoir, possessed Indian, French Canadian, English and probably African ancestry, died when Dunham was four years old. Her field work in the Caribbean began in Jamaica, where she lived for several months in the remote Maroon village of Accompong, deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Her father was a descendant of slaves from West Africa, and her mother was a mix of French-Canadian and Native-American heritage. Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. Some Facts. [54] After recovering crucial dance epistemologies relevant to people of the African diaspora during her ethnographic research, she applied anthropological knowledge toward developing her own dance pedagogy (Dunham Technique) that worked to reconcile with the legacy of colonization and racism and correct sociocultural injustices. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. ", "Dunham's European success led to considerable imitation of her work in European revues it is safe to say that the perspectives of concert-theatrical dance in Europe were profoundly affected by the performances of the Dunham troupe. While a student at the University of Chicago, Dunham also performed as a dancer, ran a dance school, and earned an early bachelor's degree in anthropology. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. She was hailed for her smooth and fluent choreography and dominated a stage with what has been described as 'an unmitigating radiant force providing beauty with a feminine touch full of variety and nuance. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. Dunham created many all-black dance groups. Example. "[48] During her protest, Dick Gregory led a non-stop vigil at her home, where many disparate personalities came to show their respect, such Debbie Allen, Jonathan Demme, and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. But Dunham, who was Black and held a doctorate in anthropology, had hoped to spur a "cultural awakening on the East Side," she told . Throughout her career, Dunham occasionally published articles about her anthropological research (sometimes under the pseudonym of Kaye Dunn) and sometimes lectured on anthropological topics at universities and scholarly societies.[27]. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. First Name Katherine #37. The State Department regularly subsidized other less well-known groups, but it consistently refused to support her company (even when it was entertaining U.S. Army troops), although at the same time it did not hesitate to take credit for them as "unofficial artistic and cultural representatives".